The British government is reported to be making plans to prioritise the return of sport for children when lockdown measures start to ease next month.
A fund is hoped to be made available to provide for the use of school facilities outside of traditional school times so that the controlled measures that will apply to school settings can be utilised to a greater extent in elevating levels of activity amongst the youngest sections of the population.
There is also a move towards making the provision of sport a measurable factor in the school reporting structure OFSTED.
The Minister responsible for sport, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has said he will bring to cabinet proposals that mean children’s sport should be the “last into and the first out of lockdown.”
In the Level three and four lockdowns that applied here before Christmas safe training was allowed in outdoor settings for children up to the age of 18, a key factor in maintaining physical and mental health among children.
It has to be hoped that this measure at least will be both permitted by Government and enabled by sporting bodies once a date is set for the return of schools.
It would also be good to know that schools who may have repurposed sports facilities in order to accommodate greater social distancing for classrooms in the return last September will be held to returning them to their intended use in as short a timeframe as possible.
In an important survey into Children’s levels of physical activity conducted by Sport Ireland in 2019, and published in September 2019, the percentage of children in primary schools that were achieving the recommended level of 60 minutes activity a day was only 17 per cent.
This fell even steeper to 10 per cent at post-primary level.
Other findings from 2018 were more positive, but those headline figures needed major attention then and are in even greater need now.
Read more about the report here.
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